List Members:
There will be a demonstration in Atlanta on April 27, 2000 at 11.00am. The
march will start at the CNN building and end at the City Hall. A copy of the
letter listed below was sent to some prominent members in Atlanta. Please
turn out in large numbers in order to send a strong signal to that BUTCHER IN
KANILAI.
Mayor Bill Campbell
55 Trinity Avenue SW
Suite 2400
Atlanta, Georgia 30335.
Dear Sir:
Certain events are unfolding in The Gambia which compel us to write with a
sense of urgency and ask for your help. The pages of human history are
littered with accounts of man's mistreatment of man, yet certain species of
misconduct are so vicious, so offensive to the code of decency, they shock
the conscience. Thus murder is murder, yet it is all the more shocking to
the human experience when committed by a mother against daughter, father
against son, or by one loved one against another. Surely we are no less
appalled when a government decides with full deliberation to turn its
instruments of war upon its citizenry for no other reason than to quell their
determination to exercise their democratic and constitutionally guaranteed
rights.
On April 10, 2000 the government of The Gambia committed such an offense
against its citizens of the most innocent age when it ordered fire on a
peaceful demonstration of students as young as 3 years of age. Some were cut
down instantly and still others sent home with their garments dipped in
blood.
From all indications on the ground, we have determined that the peaceful
demonstration undertaken by the Gambian students on April 10, 2000 was
entirely justifiable and wholly consistent with their democratic right
guaranteed by The Gambian Constitution, and the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights. From all accounts, the following events transpired:
1. On March 9, 2000 Ebrima Barry, a student enrolled at Brikama School,
entered into a dispute with his teacher over his seating designation at the
school
2. The Brikama Fire Department was called which promptly arrested Ebrima
Barry and detained him. In the course of his detention at the Brikama Fire
Department, he was stripped of his clothes, his head shaved, his body covered
in wet cement and made to ingest the same. Furthermore, Ebrima was compelled
to carry from one location to another no less than 40-60 bags of cement, one
at a time. Ebrima subsequently died from the injuries he received in the
course of his detention.
3. A man in uniform presumed to be a police officer raped a student Binta
Manneh, at the Stadium, on March 10, 2000.
4. The Gambian Student Union (GAMSU) was outraged and properly communicated
the concerns of its membership to the authorities at the failure to arrest
and prosecutes culpable persons.
5. The government's inaction convinced students that the invocation of their
democratic right to peaceably gather and express their concerns was necessary
to demonstrate their resolve that justice should prevail for their two fellow
students.
6. On the morning of April 10, 2000, GAMSU membership was to first assemble
at the GTTI where their placards were stored. However, on arrival,
paramilitary forces chanting "peace by force confronted them".
7. The paramilitary fired in the air at the GTTI, however it is not clear
whether it was live ammunition, blank shots, or rubber bullets that were used
at this time. What is certain is that the paramilitary fired in the air in
an attempt to disperse the students.
8. Even though the students at GTTI were dispersed after a brief skirmish
with the paramilitary, other students en route got word that their colleagues
were being fired upon and they scattered. Clusters of students throughout
the Serekunda area encountered paramilitary forces in pursuit.
9. In an effort to keep the paramilitary at bay, students burned tires and
defended themselves with stones as they marched on.
10. When the demonstration reached the paramilitary base at Bakau and at The
Red Cross Headquarters, live ammunition was fired into the students on orders
from someone still not disclosed killing Omar Barrow, and wounding several.
Omar Barrow was a media practitioner at Sud FM Radio Station who was acting
as a Red Cross Volunteer.
11. At no time was any student armed with anything other than stones.
Our very humanity, our right of domicile within the realm of human decency is
violated and our objection must be emphatically registered no matter the
cost. And so it shall be.
However, we are determined not to surrender to the temptation of vengeance as
comes most naturally to any human being confronted with such calamitous
circumstances. Though our blood is turned to bile, we prefer to draw a lesson
from the pages of our own prophets like Martin Luther King. Those whose
blood has been shed shall not shed blood; and those who have known tears
shall wipe them from the faces of others. In the quest for justice, the
bravest offer their lives and lay claim to no one else's.
We will survive this. However, we shudder at the specter of Somalia,
Liberia, or Sierra Leone lurking in the twilight. A government determined to
rule at all costs, costs a lot. Eventually, the totality of its misdeeds
will grind down the very fabric of human endurance and shatter it.
Dissent exists in all known societies, human and otherwise, and must be
allowed peaceful expression. That is a necessary condition to peaceful
co-existence. Gambians will reclaim our country, how this occurs is entirely
dependent on the conduct of the renegade government. As in all critical
moments like this a battle rages within each citizen; a battle between
peaceful resistance and bloody vengeance. A government that insists on
brutality aids the latter and not the former. And then God help us all. We
must all work together so that that day never arrives.
To this end we respectfully request that you:
1. Join us in a peaceful demonstration on April 27, 2000 to commence from the
CNN building and proceed to the Georgia State Capitol Building.
2. Assist us in presenting a draft resolution to the Georgia State
Legislature and the United States Congress condemning the brutish murder of
Gambian children.
3. Immediately dispatch a letter to The Gambia government condemning the
atrocities committed against its innocent citizens on April 10, 2000 and
demanding the immediate release of all persons in custody as a result of the
events on or about April 10.
_________________________________
Respectfully,
Momodou K. Ceesay
Secretary
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